Avatar 4 is a planned sequel to Avatar 3, and its aimed release date is 2022.[1]James Cameron has already hinted that no sequel will actually have "Avatar" in the title, as Jake Sully is no longer an Avatar at the end of the first film; "Avatar 4" is most likely just a temporary title. [2] Cameron has also stated that Avatar 4 will depend on how Avatar 2 and 3 fare financially.[3]

It is intended that the plot be able to stand alone, though it will form part of a meta-narrative that extends from Avatar 2 to 5.[4]

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During initial interviews on the film in 2012, Cameron commented that it may be a prequel rather than a sequel. However; all interviews since then have referred to it as a sequel; the prequel is likely a separate project. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana have signed for a further three films.[5] In October 2013, Sam Worthington confirmed that the three sequels would be shot back to back starting in fall 2014.[6]

Shane Salerno was announced as the film's screenwriter in August 2013.[7] Scriptwriting continued up through at least May 2015. According to an interview with James Horner, Cameron had inadvertently written four sequels' worth of material by that point, which needed whittling down to three.

When asked about his involvement with the ongoing franchise in April 2015, James Horner stated that he would stay with it through its entire run "If I last that long".[8] Tragically, James Horner died unexpectedly in a plane crash that June.[9]

The film was delayed by six months in January 2016, in part due to a scheduling conflict between Avatar 2 and Star Wars- Episode VIII[10] A second delay in April 2016 pushed the film back eighteen months, to Christmas 2022.[11]

In September 2017, James Cameron stated that, as part of the back-to-back shooting of all four Avatar sequels, production on Avatar 4 and 5 would start after the release of Avatar 3. Both Avatar 4 and 5 are intended to be shot together and put through post-production sequentially, in a similar fashion to Avatar 2 and 3.[12]